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OTTAWA – In what is not an April Fool’s Day prank, MPs are getting a pay raise Monday that will bring their base salaries to $160,200 from $157,731 after the House of Commons quietly lifted a three-year pay freeze.

MPs were notified of the 1.6% increase just before they scattered from Parliament Hill on Thursday for a two-week Easter break.

The increase is based on the “index of the average percentage increase in base-rate wages for a calendar year in Canada resulting from major settlements negotiated in the private sector,” says an e-mail to MPs.

The hike also translates into fatter pay packets for the prime minister, cabinet ministers, ministers of state, opposition leaders, the Speaker and other parliamentarians who have additional responsibilities besides MP duties.

That means whips, parliamentary secretaries, chairs of Commons committees and caucus chairs will also see extra compensation.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said it isn’t too bothered by what it said amounted to a small cost-of-living adjustment compared to the days of “big catch-up” increases.

But it did question the timing, considering that when salaries were frozen in 2009-10 as part of an exercise to show political belt-tightening at a time of private-sector job losses, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty forecast an $8.6 billion deficit.

“So what’s changed?” asked Gregory Thomas, the federation’s national director. “The deficit is nearly twice as big as he expected when he froze MP salaries.”

Under the new pay scale, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s take-home pay — excluding other perks like a house, cottage, car and driver — rises to $320,400, including his $160,200 MP wage.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair will earn $236,900 plus a house and a car.

Cabinet ministers will earn the same as the leader of the official Opposition.

The next leader of the third-place Liberal Party is not entitled to a car and house on the public dime, but will receive a salary of $214,700 — or the equivalent of 11 Justin Trudeau speeches.

Thomas said MPs “shouldn’t be expected to work for peanuts” and that Canadians should be raising a bigger stink over a parliamentary pension plan that is still called gold-plated despite changes last fall to trim some of the icing.

The spending watchdog said when interest and adjustments are factored in, taxpayers are contributing $25 for every $1 MPs put into the fund, and that more is being paid out than going in.